Twentieth-Century Texas: A Social and Cultural History

Private Wealth, Public Good: Texans and Philanthropy

324 TEXANS, LIKE CITIZENS FROM many other states, have participated fully in the American philanthropic tradition. Beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing to the present, they have repeatedly performed numerous acts of charity and mutual helpfulness . During the frontier period, the problems involved in settling a hostile land promoted neighborly cooperation in times of need and friendly assistance to confront unexpected dangers. Many risked their lives in epidemics of diseases such as yellow fever and cholera to tend to the sick and dying. Others formed mutual aid societies to assist families and disabled Civil War veterans, organized benevolent associations to help the poor and the orphaned, and established disaster-relief organizations such as the Howard Association—the first charitable organization in the Republic of Texas.1 Such unselfish attributes, or “habits of the heart,” continued into the twentieth century. But as more wealthy benefactors accumulated vast profits from land, livestock, and crude oil, many charitableminded Texans turned to philanthropy to improve the quality of human life. Steel master Andrew Carnegie prescribed this concept in his classic essay, “Wealth,” published in 1889. Carnegie believed that the accumulation of wealth was inevitable within a capitalist system, Private Wealth, Public Good Texans and Philanthropy Mary L. Kelley ★ 20centtxtext.indd 324 20centtxtext.indd 324 1/18/08 1:49:02 PM 1/18/08 1:49:02 PM PRIVATE WEALTH, PUBLIC GOOD 325 and the inequality between the rich and poor was the price society paid for competition and material comfort. As a proponent of Social Darwinism, which justified ruthless competition and “survival of the fittest” in the marketplace, he assumed that wealth was proof of individual fitness, while poverty was a sign of inferiority. To bestow charity on the “unreclaimably poor” caused more injury by encouraging “the very evils which it proposes to mitigate or cure.” Instead, Carnegie reasoned, the responsibility of the “man of wealth” was not to provide monetary handouts, but to return surplus wealth to society in a manner calculated to do the most good. To the steel tycoon this meant endowing museums, libraries, and scholarships, institutions that the “fit” could use to advance themselves. Or, as Carnegie put it, he and other wealthy individuals should establish “ladders upon which the aspiring can rise.”2 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many nouveau riche Texans continued the Carnegie tradition. Armed with the notion of civic stewardship and noblesse oblige, which linked the duties of the rich to the society that had enriched them, they practiced individual benevolence, giving both time and money to favorite causes. For example, civic-minded businessmen regularly donated their profits to fund needed city projects, while wives of prominent men contributed to the support of orphanages and hospitals. But beginning in 1920 a fundamentally different philanthropic vehicle emerged in Texas—the general purpose foundation. Rather than the more traditional “retail” style of individual giving, “wholesale philanthropy” enabled wealthy donors to rationally and dispassionately distribute their private wealth for the public good. Although individual giving has always far outstripped organized philanthropy, increasingly wealthy Texans established private foundations, which have significantly contributed to the social and cultural development of the state.3 During the first decades of the twentieth century several factors converged to produce a climate conducive to the creation of 20centtxtext.indd 325 20centtxtext.indd 325 1/18/08 1:49:05 PM 1/18/08 1:49:05 PM 326 TWENTIETH-CENTURY TEXAS philanthropic foundations. Most significantly, the oil discovery at Spindletop started an economic boom that became the linchpin of Texas prosperity. From oil profits flowed enormous revenue that lined the pockets of enterprising businessmen, as well as promoting related industries throughout the state. In the absence of state or federal regulation, hundreds of independent operators made quick fortunes in the petroleum business, thereby providing much of the necessary seed money to endow philanthropic endeavors. At the same time the preexistence of institutional antecedents, such as the private foundations created by Andrew Carnegie (1905, 1910, and 1911), heiress Margaret Olivia Sage (1907), and oil baron John D. Rockefeller, Sr., (1913), also promoted organized giving by example. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of their fortunes, made possible by the laissez-faire economics of the day, these Gilded Age millionaires (and billionaires such as Rockefeller) turned to organized philanthropy, which provided a systematic approach to the disposal of their charitable dollars.4 Progressive Era (1900–1920) reforms to reorder and improve society...